


Conan's No Good, Very Bad Trip to London

by SenaGune



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series, Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Conan's Existential Crisis, Crack, Gen, far too many puzzles for Conan's liking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:13:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29262546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SenaGune/pseuds/SenaGune
Summary: Conan, meet puzzles. Puzzles, meet Edogawa Conan, who does not want any of your shit.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Conan's No Good, Very Bad Trip to London

**Author's Note:**

> Conan and co takes another trip to London. They meet a professor. Conan meets the concept of puzzles (London vers.). Conan wants to cry.

“Hey, mister! You forgot your notebook!” Conan calls after the distracted man who was hurrying out of the restaurant.

The man with the awfully tall tophat turns back with an expression of surprise. “Oh! Thank you, my boy.” He kneels down, looking at Conan as he takes his forgotten notebook.

Conan blinks at the man.

The man’s two dots for eyes pinch into two thin lines, before forming back into round circles again.

Conan blinks again.

The man seems to gather himself at the odd blinking of eyes and holds out a hand. “You appear to be a bright young boy. My name is Hershel Layton, a professor of archaeology at Gressenheller University. Nice to meet you.”

Conan tilts his head slightly and takes the hand with all the cheerfulness of an elementary school kid. “Nice to meet you, Professor. My name is Conan Edogawa! I’m a detective!”

Ran, bless her soul, chuckles at Conan’s enthusiastic response. “And I’m Ran Mouri, nice to meet you, Professor.”

The Professor seems to have a thought cross his mind as he gives them both a glance. “Say, why don’t the two of you follow me to my office? I’ve got some interesting artefacts you two may be curious about, and some lovely puzzles to solve as well. And you,” he gives Conan a small smile, “may even help me with my own mystery.”

Conan peers up at Ran, who gives him a small nod of approval. “Dad probably won’t be back from his meeting for a while, so we have plenty of time to kill.”

Professor Layton hums a note, pleased, and starts to move onwards to a nearby bus stop. “Thank you for accompanying me. Please follow me.”

_Well,_ Conan exchanges a look with Ran, _this trip to London is bound to be interesting._

* * *

It has been two hours since then.

Present Conan much regrets Past Conan’s decision to call after the man. He should have just left the notebook there, and the man probably would have gone back to take it himself. He should have left it alone. Curse his own kind heart. Conan just wants to go home. 

The kind Professor had offered them a small tour around the university and the three of them had run into an unfortunate missing person case regarding a university student. The gathering information has not been kind to Conan.

“Why Professor! I’ve got some information for you!” The first person they ran across - a young university student with overly large glasses that keep slipping off - far too cheerfully announced to them. “I’ve just got this awful puzzle that I need to solve first…”

“This puzzle…” The Professor glances at the offered puzzle meaningfully.

“Can you give us the information then?” Conan questions. 

“But the puzzle…” The student sighs in reply. 

The Professor claps his hand together in a moment of realisation. “Of course!”

Conan sharply turns his glance towards him. “Have you figured out something, Professor?”

The Professor grins gleefully. “Yes, my dear boy! I’ve solved the puzzle!”

Conan tries his best not to make a face and prompts the student again. “The information…?”

But she is engrossed in a conversation about the goddamn puzzle with the Professor, nodding at all his little hints and brightening when she solves the puzzle by herself. Ran is listening intently along with the university student as if nothing about this is unusual in the very least.

This whole process takes thirty minutes.

* * *

“Professor!” The fifth person they run into exclaims. “I’ve got some information that’s hidden within this puzzle!”

The Professor is there within seconds, pouring his attention on the offered puzzle. Ran stands attentively beside him, hand rubbing her chin as she tries to solve the puzzle as well.

Conan slams his head against the nearest pillar.

* * *

“Ran-neechan, can we go home?” Conan tugs at Ran’s skirt with the most mortifyingly child-like voice he could muster up. “Please?” 

Ran is distracted by the puzzle. “This puzzle looks really important, Conan! It could be the key to solving our missing person case!” She shoves one of those puzzle monstrosities towards him. “Here, why don’t you give it a try?”

Conan hides a grimace. “No thank you! I’m going to the toilet real quick!”

Ran merely nods. “Don’t take too long!”

Conan runs away from the puzzle maniacs and escapes into the nearest restroom, sliding out his phone as he locks himself in one of the cubicles. He brings out one of his contacts and prays that he picks up so that he could be saved from his situation.

“Hello?” 

Thank the heavens, his prayers have been answered.

“Hakuba-niichan! Hello!” Conan inserts far too much cheer.

“Edogawa-kun? What is the matter?”

“Are you free now? Do you happen to be in London? I’m in London for a trip and I was hoping maybe you could show me around the cool stuff London has to offer!”

“Well, yes, I do happen to be in the area. I don’t mind showing you around.”

Conan wants to cry in relief. Thank you, gods.

“I have a place in mind that I think you might have an interest in,” Hakuba continues. “It’s a well-known university called Gressenheller University. They’ve got wonderfully challenging puzzles for anyone to solve-”

Conan hangs up.

* * *

Conan returns to the puzzle-solving duo, who appear triumphant. 

“Conan-kun! We’ve discovered where the missing person is at!” Ran tells Conan, beaming. “Come, let’s go!”

Conan perks up at this news and hurries after them as they head towards their destination. 

After several hallway turns, a lone room with an odd mechanism at the door faces them. 

The Professor crosses his arms in thought. “Hm, a locked puzzle room.”

The room’s occupant seems to have heard them, yelling out for help. “Is there someone there? Please help me out of this room! I can’t solve the puzzle and I’m locked here!” 

Conan desperately wants a cup of coffee. A warm, strong, black cup of coffee.

Ran observes the lock. “I think it’s a sliding puzzle, Professor.”

The Professor peers at it, a hand on his chin deep in thought. “Indeed. It appears that we only have seventeen moves to do it, too. Troubling…”

Conan powers up his sneakers. “I’m kicking the door down!” 

The Professor and Ran both turn frantic, moving away from him as he readies himself to kick the door down. 

“Conan-” “Conan-kun!”

The (wooden) door is smashed into pieces. Out stumbles an exhausted university student, his wild hair sticking all over the place despite his once neat bun. “Thank you,” he sighs.

Conan notices something in the room. “Isn’t that an axe? Why didn’t you just break the door down?”

The student shrugs. “Puzzle’s in the way.”

The Professor and Ran nod in understanding. “Ah, a puzzle in the way.”

Conan very much wants to cry as he slams his head against the wall.

* * *

The trip is finally over. Conan is free from the horrors of puzzles. He sits on Agasa’s couch, gently nursing his fifth cup of coffee. No more puzzles, just him and his black coffee and _no more puzzles._

Agasa walks in at this point, worryingly glancing over at Conan. “Shinichi-kun, are you alright?”

Conan gives a small “mmm” in response.

Agasa frowns, before brightening as an idea crosses his mind. “Ah, I’ve got just the thing to cheer you up! Here’s a small riddle for you, Shinichi-kun-”

Conan wordlessly moves towards the door, slides his shoes on, and leaves the house completely, coffee still steaming in hand.

No more puzzles, just him and his black coffee and _no more puzzles, for the love of god._

**Author's Note:**

> it's just amusing to me how badly conan would probably react if everywhere he turned he had to solve another bloody puzzle. 
> 
> conan: info please
> 
> witness: haha HOW ABOUT YOU SOLVE MY PUZZLE FIRST
> 
> conan: can i go home now
> 
> special thanks to [TRANZSHINICHI](https://twitter.com/TRANZSHINICHI) over on twitter, from whom this idea of conan x puzzles was born
> 
> anyways feel free to yell at me or whatever over on twitter [hakubatime](https://twitter.com/hakubatime) <3


End file.
